Combat
Combat in the world of Frontier is a fast and brutal affair, with violent clashes out in the void often leaving at least one side of the conflict bloodied, or even dead. The rules below will give a basic outline of a character’s stats and common combat abilities, as well as defence stats, common damage calls and a breakdown of how all of these things are used in a live action combat situation. Character Stats All characters, Player Characters (PCs) and Non-Player Characters (NPCs) alike, have a set of stats, although how these stats are used can vary between them. These stats are broken down into: Vitality Vitality represents a character’s strength of will, both in the mental respect and their sheer will to survive. This stat can be thought of as a general health indicator, the more Vitality Damage a character takes, the weaker and sicklier they will become. If a characters Vitality reaches 0, they fall unconscious. If it falls below 0 or a negative number determined by a characters Resilience the character will die. Examples of Vitality Damage – Poison, Radiation, Types of Arcae, Tapping for emergency Arcons. Locational Strength Locational Strength represents how much punishment a character’s body can take before finally breaking. The body is broken into several locations; the right and left arms and legs, the lower and upper body, and the head, all of which can take Locational Damage. IMPORTANT: THE HEAD IS LISTED AS A LOCATION FOR SPECIAL CASES SUCH AS SPLIT-SECOND REFLEXES OR OTHER NON-LIVE COMBAT DAMAGE. NEVER STRIKE SOMEONE’S HEAD DURING LIVE COMBAT! If the Locational Strength of a location reaches 0, that location is no longer usable. If that location is the Head or Chest, the character immediately falls unconscious. Example of taking Locational Damage – Trogdor, a Reptila Warrior of the Moto tribe, is locked in combat with a ferocious beast. The beast manages to latch onto Trogdor with its sharp teeth and rips into his arm for 2 Locational Damage. It leaps away only to dive back into the fray and swipe Trogdor in the leg for 1 Locational Damage. Resilience Resilience represents the characters ability to withstand pain and damage. This is a global stat which directly ties into the amount of Bruising Damage a character can take; temporary damage that is not immediately dangerous but if left unchecked can cause serious harm. The amount of Bruising Damage a character can take before it becomes a point of Vitality Damage is calculated by taking the characters Resistance and multiplying it by 2. A Character takes Bruising Damage if the damage they take does not exceed their Armour Total. Any Bruising Damage not converted into Vitality Damage at the end of an Encounter is wiped. Resilience is also used to determine how far below zero a characters Vitality or Locational Strength can go before the character dies or the limb is lost, respectively. Example of taking Bruising Damage – Trogdor has defeated the beast, but has now encountered a smaller beast, probably the creature’s young. Still a vicious threat, Trogdor swings to strike it down, but misses and is in turn bitten by the young beast. The beast does not do enough damage in one bite to do any real harm, so Trogdor takes a point of bruising damage. He takes two more points of Bruising Damage before the beast is slain, and at Resilience (1) converts two points of Bruising Damage into one Vitality Damage, and ignores the third point. Additional Stats There are also additional stats that will often be listed with a PC or NPC. These stats are not representative of any physical attributes, but rather affected by training or equipment. Dexterity Dexterity is usually used to represent how effectively a character can avoid damage by ducking, dodging and rolling with the blows of combat. This is shown by adding their Dexterity stat to their Armour Total, or AT, as will be explained below. Dexterity may also be applied in Role Playing situations, such as climbing a wall or running along rooftops. Dexterity is only applied to a character’s Armour Total if the character can move sufficiently enough to utilise it. Armour Total A characters Armour Total is the combined protection their equipment, training and even physiology grant them. This number is subtracted from any damage taken, with the result being the final amount of damage the character takes. Example of calculating and using Armour Total – Ruby the Polgari has an Armour Total of 3. This is due to her Synth-Leather Armour granting her an AT bonus of 2, and her Dexterity granting an AT bonus of 1, making an AT bonus of 3 altogether. This means that if Ruby takes a damage call of Triple or less, the damage is reduced to Bruising Damage. If she takes a Quad, she will only take 1 damage; if she takes a Quin she will only take 2 damage, and so on. Arcons The amount of power a mage has at their disposal to cast spells during an adventure. Each Arcae Spell costs a certain number of Arcons to cast, once a character runs out of Arcons they are unable to cast any more spells until they can regenerate their Arcons. This will be expanded upon in the Arcae section of the Damage Calls and Common Calls The following is a breakdown of Damage calls and common combat calls you may hear. This is not an exhaustive list, and if during play you hear a call you are unfamiliar with, ask the monster or a ref what it does. Specific calls are usually added before the actual damage, Armour Piercing Single or Excruciating Triple for instance. Damage Calls Damage calls will generally be Single, Double, Triple, Quad or Quin. Any call higher than Quin will be 6, 7, 8 etc., however these will be very rare! Crushing Blow A call of Crushing Blow means the bones in the location struck are broken, rendering the location useless. If this blow is landed on the lower body, the character is unable to walk as their spine is damaged. If this blow is landed on the upper body or head, the shock sends the character unconscious immediately. Elemental An elemental call is usually caused by an Arcae effect. The actual call will be the element in question, such as Fire, Lightning, or Earth to name a few. The effects of an Elemental call will vary depending on the call, which will be expanded on either on the spell that caused the Elemental effect, or by a ref if caused by another source. Excruciating A call of Excruciating means the character struck must role play being in intense pain in the location struck for 5 seconds. The location will not be useable in that time and any skills that require concentration (knowledge, lock picking and surgery as examples) will also be unusable. Occasionally a characters Vitality may be targeted with Excruciating, often due to a spell effect or poison. In this instance, the pain affects all locations simultaneously. Explosive (Xm) A call of Explosive is added to the end of a damage call, in addition a range is also called out. So for example a call might be Quad Explosive (1m). An Explosive call damages any characters within range of the point of the explosion for half the damage of the call rounded down for that amount of Vitality and Locational Damage to each location. Any character at the point of the explosion takes the full amount of Vitality and Locational Damage to each location, and the damage is also Rending. If an Explosive call has no range added at the end, only the character at the point of impact is damaged (most likely due to an explosive bullet or similar). All characters in range of the blast suffer a Knock Down effect. Immune A call of Immune is a reactionary call made by a character if they are immune to an effect. Some creatures in the Void will be immune to the effects of a Crushing Blow for instance, or some characters may be so tough they ignore the effects of an Excruciating Blow. Knock Back (Xm) A call of Knock Back is added to the end of a damage call, in addition a range is also called. So for example a call might be Double Knock Back (3m). After taking damage, the character struck must immediately move the distance called away in a straight line from the origin of the call and fall to the ground. Mass A call of Mass is added to another effect, such as “Mass Excruciating”. Mass calls affect everyone in an encounter at once. Mighty Blow A call of Mighty Blow doubles the normal damage call of a melee attack made by the character. Piercing A call of Piercing means the damage call completely ignores a character’s AT. Rending A call of Rending halves a character’s AT rounded down for the blow struck. For example, if a character has an AT of 3 and are hit with a Rending Double, their AT would be 1 for the blow and they would take a single point of damage, rather than a point of bruising damage. Dexterity still applies as normal. Shatter A call of Shatter is generally made without a damage call. Shatter means that the weapon or equipment struck shatters into pieces and is usually irreparably damaged. Some weapons or equipment are immune to shatter effects, either through magical protection or due to the properties of the item in question, usually size. Subdue A call all characters can make, this is an attack that does no actual damage, but still will cause an IC reaction. This will often be used by characters wishing to keep a target in line still, as the name suggests, subdue them. A ref may apply bruising damage at their discretion if a character takes an extended amount of subdue blows. Critical Effects Occasionally in combat a character will suffer injuries so severe or so sudden that a critical effect may be applied. Below is a list of critical effects and what can cure them. Burned If a location is struck with a flaming or acidic attack or effect that bypasses armour, the location is burned and the character suffers an extended Excruciating effect until the burn can be tended to with first aid. Crippled If a location is incorrectly healed after being broken or severed, the location is Crippled, and the character suffers -1 to their maximum Locational Strength in the Crippled location until it is properly healed. Frozen If a location is struck with a freezing attack or effect that bypasses armour, the location is frozen and the location cannot be moved until tended to with suitable equipment. If the location is frozen for an extended amount of time, a Burned effect may also be applied. Severe Bleeding If a location is brought down to 0 wounds or severed, the character will suffer Severe Bleeding on top of other effects. Severe Bleeding causes a character suffer 1 Vitality Damage every 5 minutes until the character is stabilised through first aid, or the wound is otherwise sealed. Unconsciousness If the character’s head is brought down to 0 wounds, the head or chest suffers a Crushing Blow or is the character suffers another suitable blow or effect, such as suffocation, the character will immediately fall unconscious. They can be revived with suitable equipment. Category:Rules Category:Combat Category:Stats